Given the events in Los Angeles and New York, we have quite a high risk of another Kent State, or worse. Because without a doubt, Donald Trump is itching for it.
He’s no doubt one of those old guys who is bummed about Kent State because more commie hippies weren’t killed. He spent money on a full-page New York Times ad urging the execution of the Central Park Five, who were later exonerated. He had to be talked out of sending in the military during BLM protests.
I wrote about how Trump and the right view killing. A core belief is that a true privilege in this country is who gets to kill. Adrastos wrote about how Trump is restoring the right to own a gun to actor Mel Gibson, a convicted domestic abuse offender with a history of fits of rage. Both of these are connected because power through violence is a core Republican tenet now.
They are lying and will continue to lie about the level of violence happening at these protests. Remember during BLM protests, when the right claimed that Minneapolis and Portland were in ashes, despite residents saying now, the protests were in a specific area, and they are exaggerating about the violence in the protest area? Well, they are running that playbook.
This is not a city falling apart into anarchy:
for context here’s a map of greater Los Angeles and the protest is the roughly the red circle
Apologies for the large image, but that map is important. We need more context, and we also need to educate our friends, family members, coworkers, etc., about that context. You see, Americans are not really all that fond of protesting. I believe the GOP knows this and is trying to unleash a propaganda campaign to convince moderates who are not paying attention that Gestapo tactics are the only option.
Again, listen to the people who actually live there and are not people who believe nonsense.
Hello. I live in Los Angeles. The president is lying.
— Kai Ryssdal (@kairyssdal.bsky.social) 2025-06-08T21:54:54.880Z
I have battled this type of bullshit for what I feel like has been forever. People get the hurty-hurtz when I push back on it because Bullshit is the State Religion and you can’t question it, but claims that America is a crime-ridden hellhole, despite data proving that wrong, is part of the problem here as well. I occasionally hear someone say they went to NYC and were shocked that it wasn’t the total hellhole they expected.
A moment like this is why believing that stuff is more than just someone’s opinion. It’s not good because it enables a person to be okay with some of the worst that fascism can inflict on our society. This is about masked goons from ICE snatching people off the streets, and a war on the rule of law at its most basic. People should have due process, this is the basis of democracy and society.
When viewed in that light, who gives a shit about a few burning Waymos? Are we really going to focus our outrage on the protestors and not the fascists they are opposing? I hope not.
The last word goes to Amyl and the Sniffers.
For those of us who remember 2020 in Portland, Los Angeles now is like a revival of a play that didn’t age well. Daily demonstrations, mostly peaceful, until the cops started getting hangry late in the day. Then the shooting pretext happens, like someone allegedly throwing a water bottle at one of the storm troopers, which is the signal for all hell to break loose.